The First Outing

Firsts are a pretty big deal in our house. We love to make them really special and document them. We discovered that when Ella was born, that meant a whole lot of pictures and writing in the baby calendar. (That's sort of like a baby book. There is a space to write each day and add cute little stickers. We have matching calendars for Ella's first year and now for Sam's first year. They are from Hallmark.) Now we get to start all over with Sam's firsts. Most of the time it's great fun, but sometimes it puts us in a bind. For example, if I needed to go to the store - any store - with Sam, I would need to wait until Pete was free to go with us so that we could all experience it together. Does that seem silly? Perhaps, but that's how we roll. We love firsts and we love surprises.

So get ready for some "first" posts.

For Sam's first outing, we ventured to Canal Park, one of our very favorite places. For those of you not in Duluth, it's the very bottom tip of Lake Superior where all the ships end up after making their way through the Great Lakes. We get enormous ships here from all over the world. They make their way (carefully) through the canal and under the lift bridge before emptying their load or filling up and heading out. Our wedding reception was only a few hundred yards from the canal. We love it there. (And it's only five minutes from our house.)

on a hill in front of the lift bridge

someone gave her bread, making her a fave for the seagulls

Sam basking in the sunshine

the ship horns are loud!

pretending to lick the ice cream cone

mmm, her very own ice cream cone